Anyone who has walked a dog, for pleasure, training or show, has experienced the need to shorten the length of the lead to assert greater control of the dog. This need generally arises when other canines or people approach and there is a danger of undesired contact. In addition when training a dog there is often the need to take aggressive control of the dog to reinforce the commands being given. It is the object of this invention to provide a leash system which meets this need and provides other advantages as well.
There have been several attempts to solve this problem. Among them is the leash described in the reference Dale, U.S. Pat. No. 2,861,547. In this reference there is described a leash having multiple connecting points to enable the leash to be doubled over to halve or quarter the length of the lead. Although this accomplishes a similar purpose, it would be difficult to change the length of the lead while the leash is under tension. This is a severe limitation as the need will generally arise quickly, without a great deal of warning and while the canine is straining against the leash.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,332,398 which issued to Mintz describes a single leash with a loop at the normal end away from the dog and another hand loop at the end connected to the dogs collar. Again when the leash is under tension it will be difficult to grasp the lower leash to make use of this feature. In an attempt to solve this problem and provide an easily constructed leash, another dual handled leash is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,363,810. In this patent a leash is described having a continuous strap folded over and sewn to provide a second handle at the collar end of the leash which is not effected by tension on the leash. As in the other solutions of the prior art, the '810 patent is a single leash and is of limited flexibility in use because of its construction.